Nine Blues Feeding – 1/4/17

The Saturday morning Perth Canyon cafe was busy today with nine Blue Whales feeding! That is nine of the largest animals to have ever graced our planet surrounding us and to say we were excited is a huge understatement?

The first two sightings were younger individuals and while one disappeared into the depths below to have his morning snack the other would surface close by to replenish his oxygen levels.

The efficiency and timing of their surfacing behaviour certainly looked like they were working together as a team to keep those krill from dispersing too much during their surface time.

Another giant six meter blow was sighted 100 meters away shortly followed by yet another… and another…and another!

We had arrived where the krill were located this morning and all nine Blue Whales within the area were having a feast of thousandths of kilos of the finest krill to be found.

One of the larger individuals sighted today also provided the opportunity for some further Blue Whale poo collecting which is a fantastic opportunity rarely seen during migration but a natural part of what happens in the feeding grounds.

Also sighted on our expedition today was a very enthusiastic pod of 10+ Common Dolphins, Wilsons Storm Petrels, Flesh Footed Shearwaters, Australasian Gannets, Mother and calf Bottlenose Dolphin, small Hammerhead Shark and a Green Sea Turtle.

A massive bait ball had attracted the attention of 50-100 birds that were diving from great heights into the ocean to capture a meal of fresh baitfish resulting in some very impressive flying by some of the Australasian Gannets as they hit the waters surface at approximately 100kph??